well, I am from Los Angeles, been learning japanese for almost 3 years now. I got a long way to go, but slowly I am getting there. I have plans to go to japan in 2007, I'll be 25 by then, but I'll be ready to go there by then.

I took Japanese one to three in a year and a half, got C's in both of them, but I made it. After that, I took two years off of studying it, but I put all of my energy into learning Computer animation. I learned it well enough to become a TA at my old HS and help teach it. Anywho, this past fall 2005, I got back to it and took Japanese 4, kind of a bad move, but it was something I wanted to do. Well, I got a B on it. ^_^

I took two year off, but in those two years I learned a lot more grammar points and some other stuff, thanks to my Japanese amigos.

Well, I still need the help of these places. For one thing, even if you master a language, you still go to the forums to learn more about that language. I mean, I still go to spanish forums and chit chat in them, just because I know spanish doesn't mean that I will stop going to the spanish languaeg forum. O_O I also come to these forum to learn new grammar points and to just learn more about the japanese language. You never stop learning.

Die wrote:Hi...wow 3 years? Must have been off and on or else I can't imagine you'd need to still be visiting here.

Uh... living in the states, it would be nearly impossible to become close to fluent in 3 years. Students who study in Japan for 2 years (5 days a week, 5 hours of class a day) get pretty close to fluent by the end, but... there's still a lot on this site that would be useful to them!

Die wrote:Hi...wow 3 years? Must have been off and on or else I can't imagine you'd need to still be visiting here.

Uh... living in the states, it would be nearly impossible to become close to fluent in 3 years. Students who study in Japan for 2 years (5 days a week, 5 hours of class a day) get pretty close to fluent by the end, but... there's still a lot on this site that would be useful to them!

Nearly impossible to be fluent in Japanese in 3 years? Maybe if you study 1 hour a day? JLPT guidelines indicate that in order to achieve the criteria for Level 1 (2,000 kanji and 10,000 words of vocabulary) a student would have studied the language for 900 hours. So um, yeah, you must be a slow learner (or really bad at picking up other languages) to take 3 whole years of studying (the problem people have is that they don't stick with learning the language--they take breaks, they forget, they have to re-learn which is why you have 9-month programs that are intense-learning and allow you to be fluent after you come out of them). Maybe if you take classes in my school and never devote any extra time to studying on your own, it would take "3 years" since the pacing is ridiculously slow at my particular institution. Japanese teachers (and yes I'm talking about ones with PhDs, like the ones at my university) are infamous for teaching at a snail's pace because they think foreigners need to be taught at elementary level. We don't even learn kanji until the *3rd* semester here. Do you understand how ridiculous that sounds? No wonder most people take an eternity to learn the language.

It's honestly people like you that make coming to forums so distracting. So instead of putting down people who want to learn quickly by saying it's nearly impossible to learn the language in 3 years (2 years is *more* than do-able unless you learn at a snail's pace) I suggest maybe you should lighten up. Not everyone is a slow learner.

Uh... living in the states, it would be nearly impossible to become close to fluent in 3 years. Students who study in Japan for 2 years (5 days a week, 5 hours of class a day) get pretty close to fluent by the end, but... there's still a lot on this site that would be useful to them!

yah, that's what a lot of my penpals say, but it's different in California. There's a huge Japanese population in here, the main problem is that when you have two language and use them all the time, and at the same time you are learning a 3rd language, you kind of do not need the 3rd language and just forget about it. That's my problem, I just do not speak japanese that much to even feel that well to speak it, yeah I do understand it a lot better than I speak it, but when it comes to forming my ideas it's kind of hard for me.

For now, I am just putting my energy into japanese, kanji is getting a little harder as I move on, but it is just my brain making sense out of it with the two language I know, english & spanish.

Hey, nice to meet you. Could learn quite a bit from you too Make yourself at home!

well, as a learner too, I am here just to learn more and to learn more strange Japanese grammar. ^_^

I'll be happy to help too, from time to time, but it will just me the basic stuff.

Nearly impossible to be fluent in Japanese in 3 years? Maybe if you study 1 hour a day? JLPT guidelines indicate that in order to achieve the criteria for Level 1 (2,000 kanji and 10,000 words of vocabulary) a student would have studied the language for 900 hours.

no, Kanji takes years to get a hand of. Those numbers reflect the amount of time it should take a normal foreigner, who is studying in japan, in order to understand japanese and be able to take that exam. It doesn't reflect the numbers, for a foreigner learning the language, outside of Japan. Anywho, it can be done, but not without a 6 month foreign exchange to japan. I had some friends in my Japanese 4 class, who went to a foreign exchange for 6 months, a lot of them told me the same thing. That it was the best move they made to perfect their Japanese skills, some even told me that their japanese skills sucked even before going there. That same person, who said that her japanese skills sucked, went on to take the Japanese 3 Exam. Notice that a Japanese student taking the Japanese language level 3, while she is taking Japanese 4? That doesn't fit with your idea of the amount of hours needed to reach Japanese one. Even she said it, "It will take me another 3 years to reach the japanese level 1 exam." It is not because she is "dumb", but because she is not in Japan to reach that level. It is true that she should put more time, but with just having a normal life and work. Who has the time to put in so many hours?

It's honestly people like you that make coming to forums so distracting. So instead of putting down people who want to learn quickly by saying it's nearly impossible to learn the language in 3 years (2 years is *more* than do-able unless you learn at a snail's pace) I suggest maybe you should lighten up. Not everyone is a slow learner.

As a slow learner, I think you are putting down those people too. I've seen people with learning disabilities learning Japanese at my college. I don't know why you dislike them so much and why you are putting them down? Yeah, I am a slow learner too, so what?

Side note: There's different kinds of people in this world. Respect those who are trying hard and have a learning disability and try not to insult them. Einstein had a learning disability. Try to show respect to those people who have it. Ok ^_^

RGmex wrote:yah, that's what a lot of my penpals say, but it's different in California. There's a huge Japanese population in here...

Even so, how would you learn kanji? With students living in Japan, studying 40 hours a week and taking probably 3 years to be fluent, I just don't see how the same thing could happen in the states, even if it is in California. Like you said, there's no necessity to speak it because everyone knows English. When I was there, I got the feeling that if I spoke Japanese to someone I didn't know they would think I assumed they didn't speak English (which is belittling).

I'm not trying to argue with R Gmex, I just think Die's statement is completely foolish. I'd like to hear how long Die has been studying and what level he/she is at!

Even so, how would you learn kanji? With students living in Japan, studying 40 hours a week and taking probably 3 years to be fluent, I just don't see how the same thing could happen in the states, even if it is in California. Like you said, there's no necessity to speak it because everyone knows English. When I was there, I got the feeling that if I spoke Japanese to someone I didn't know they would think I assumed they didn't speak English (which is belittling).

I'm not trying to argue with R Gmex, I just think Die's statement is completely foolish. I'd like to hear how long Die has been studying and what level he/she is at!

neh, I wasn't debating you. In fact, I was agreeing with you. I was debating with Die. But you are right, I've never realy use japanese to my japanese friends that much, I just do not want them to make me feel belittle, you know? I don't want them to get the idea that I am just a gaijin trying to speak it. Reason for why I want to go to japan, to just get better over there, so that when I come back to the states I can use it here towards other japanese aand it willl feel normal. I do agree with your statement. I've had a korean friend who spoked spanish like a native, but in my mind I went with the idea that they didn't know spanish and I would just speak english to them. >_< My korean bud noticed it and talked to me about it, that changed my view.

I still can't see how a person can become fluent in japanese in the states too?? O_o

in japan...yeah, but not here in the states. I mean, the only reason why I learned to say speak fluently in japanese was due to my japanese buds. I mean...I even learned how to say " F U" in japanese too >_<

yeah...speak fluently..

watashi wa eigo wo pera pera de hanasemasu.

damn!! and we still have to learn Japanese onomatopoeias . ^_^

A few more months added to the japanese learning schedule. I know what you mean keaton.

There was this guy who learned to speak fluently Icelandic in a week and was interviewed in an Icelandic tv program. That was pretty far out.
He was idiot savant though. I guess for us mortals it's too late to take that road (Didn't look that fun anyway). Back to the drawing board...

its called savant sydrom, dont put the idiot in front of it because some people hav it with no downside. there are 3 of them in the world, not many people with savant syndrom anyways.
i watched a 2 hour special on savants, that dictionary and atlas guy is awsome.

ashitaka wrote:its called savant sydrom, dont put the idiot in front of it because some people hav it with no downside. there are 3 of them in the world, not many people with savant syndrom anyways.i watched a 2 hour special on savants, that dictionary and atlas guy is awsome.

I stand corrected. Daniel Tammet was the man and I think he's classified as autistic savant.